Government hospitals run out of medicines?

Image: they seem to have lots of money to adorn the hospital building with lots of flags, but how about using the money to buy medicines?

While many of you either read the internet or watch TV related to budget 2009, I had a personal experience with it yesterday.

Long ago I’ve changed my life style and started visiting government hospitals for my ailments instead of private ones.

Yesterday, I went to the government hospital to get my usual supply of medicines for my high blood pressure, but was told that I could only get a month’s supply.

I was usually given four months supply as I live in Bangkok and will return there today.

“It’s not that I do not want to give it to you, please understand,” pleaded the young pharmacist at the counter.

She looked truly desperate. “It’s just that we do not have the supply,” she added.

How come, I asked? What if there were an emergency? What am I to do when I run out of medicines in Bangkok as the city does not have some of the tablets that I am use to taking?

“We have no budget to buy medicines,” she revealed. We are waiting for the budget to be approved.

“We are not the only ones. The whole of Malaysia is affected,” she added.

I wonder how many of you experience such a thing. I guess if you are not seriously ill or have a disease which you need to treat over a longer period of time, it is okay.

If you need a constant supply of meds like me, you may be in trouble.

The frst thing that came to my mind: state of emergency in hospitals?

Perhaps the GH leadership is busy playing politics and is now embroiled in “WHO DID IT?” – as in who leaked the report related to sodomy chages of Anwar Irahim.

BUDGET 2009 was tabled in Parliament by yesterday no other than Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Already analysts are commenting that the RM207.9 bil budget is a fantasy for Malaysia, with a budget deficit of 3.5 percent.

Those whose use less than RM20 of electricity per month will not be charged?

I believe many with families are paying more than RM20 per month for electricity? So who does this benefit? The footloose and fancy free.

There’ll be a 50 percent cut in toll for buses, but none for those at border entry-points – Johor, Second Link and Bukit Kayu Hitam. The ‘government’ will compensate the toll operators RM45 mil per year for these losses.

Hey, where is the money coming from?

I could go on and on but I haven’t digested all of the budget info as yet.

I would like to see if PAKATAN RAKYAT has an alternative budget, other than the one related to reduction of fuel prices.

Susan, this supply contraint for common medicine started some years ago. In previous years (about a decade already) even the supply of even the commonest and cheapest of stuffs like Vitamin C and Paracetamol underwent an ever increasing economy drive(squeeze) in the name of non wastages – patients get smaller and smaller supply of such as compared with previous years. And they never know how and when to stop at saving pennies. Exotic and expensive medicines are being purchased for VIP needs however. The situation is absurd but a policy matter. It isn’t really the pharmacist’s or dispenser’s fault. If you’re a VIP, you’ll be treated with superior more expensive high B/P medication, gratis. That’s within the discretion of the Specialist doctor.

You’re lucky Susan, to be able to get a month supply as HBP is not one of Sleepy’s medical problem. If anyone had asked for Viagra or the likes, you can be sure they are completely OUT OF STOCK !!! The lastest scientific survey conducted although not publicised reveal that taking too much of the sex-enhancing drug will slowly turn you into a moron. Do we need more proof?

Did someone say we can save Rm20 just so we can spend it on candles? What about my favorite TV show,..Hantu’ni Balldance, A Crooks Tour?

Firstly be aware that the Health Ministry actually receive a very small annual allocation compared with other Ministries. M’sia is notoriously stingy on spending on the Health services.

Now, who jacked up the prices of medicine in recent times. Ask one of the Tun M’s son, e.g. Anyway I’m too bored to want to have to enlighten anyone who can ‘t be bothered about researching the real reason and situation about the price increase in medicine.

No, the biggest scandal is the insertion of middlemen bodies in the distribution and sales of otherwise dirt cheap pharmaceutical stuffs like Panadol/Paracetamol and Ascorbic acid(Vit. C). Do you know what’s the actual cost of manufacturing these, Ang Kong? It’ll shock you, absolutely, to know. This is a very scandalous thing.

it all depends . My brother always go to the University Hospital in P.Jaya…and he always get his supplies for few months.
High blood pressure needs control with pills daily…no cure.
Why must the hospital want to make a patient come every month?
But you can bet your life….they do pick and choose….and back to …it’s who you know…to succeed under UMNO government….even for such treatments.
The other problem is….good rules are set up…but no one is sacked or replaced….if anyone breaks the rules…so there is no serious hard and fast rules to follow. Usually lousy bad attitudes staffs love no rules….free an easy working c9omnditions.
This reflects what type of a Minister of Health we are having.
Now look at the Transport Dept….right time to expose so much briberies taken…all in papers. It’s nothing new….but for first time….ACA is doing something Malaysians can be proud of.
Yes….for 37 years …I refuse to bribe for my delivery vans to be inspected.
I was told to bribe…and smooth inspections. I say no….and all my vans need to do this or do that..all little things….to go back…to and fro..for few times…and get approved.
Now my van drivers also agree with me..no bribery and keep tolerating their nonsense.
So lets hope..next inspection……should be easy.
These people do not care…faulty lorries ..buses or vans..kill lives!!
All the care…is taking bribes.

Aiyo! Our dear darling slooney, anything happening to you we are all feeling heartache for you. Can’t you cure the root cause of your sickness instead of relying on the medicine provided by the Umno-controlled GH for survival?

If any thing is happening to you, we hold mca and the minister of health totally responsible for what is happening to you.

So OKC and Liow Tong Lai better be forewarned!!!! You have no nice days to live !!!

Correct correct correct! My personal experience – my significant other had to undergo a daily med regime for her TB. Without failed, she would be there at the designated clinic time and took in a jab and get her appt book duly signed on the spot, because she was told that to miss a single jab day would be against the recommended and will have to repeat the course from scratch. Until one day she was told that the jab med was out of stock and was required to leave her hp number to contact when new stock is received! A week later, a call to resume the jab treatment, and upon some friendly inquiries was told the reason was that pharma companies wasnt’t paid by Health Ministries.

High blood pressure is not death threatening…with modern medicine.
It needs control of diets and a stress free life.
Infact if a patient have no purpose in life…no useful things to do everyday…it is bad.
But judging from Susan’s activities…she has no time to think of it..except to get medicine for few months….to save time…to be useful….everyday.
The only thing that she may not have….and do gets into her nerves…is patience and tolerance.
Therefore…one hour of complete silence..exercising and simple meditating everyday…will be very good for her.
Minds over matters is best cure.

Everyone have stresses. You cannot escape from it.
It is how you deal with those stresses…..most important.
Mine is with my children..so I let go…be selfish…and told them…the rules of my life….take it or leave it. All is well now.
Old parents we love so dearly ….ye feel sort of helpless…do give us stresses.
One needs to be practical…do the best and always be prepared for the worst.
A stubborn old person…can never change. You are lucky..if parents are not stubborn…..but if they do…smile away. treat them like children…which they are…as they grow older….want more and more attentions.
Don’t get frustrated!! Go out in the open air….breathe hard…and keep being patient and tolerating.
Don’t send them to old folks home..to solve your problems!!
If they agree..that’s another matter.
Don’t force! Don’t forget how much you depended on them….when you are helpless…..now they are helpless…what do we do?
You see…I know Susan loves her mother very much…but I need to take this opportunity to part my thoughts about old folks.

Back to high blood pressure….my Chief Monk Dr. Dhammananda has it… plus few more ailments….yet he lived to the ripe old age of 84!!
Mine you…he is worst…no exercise…eat and sleep at times.
It is mind over matters that he was an expert.

you have money to travel, why should u go to gov. hopital. You dont have sense of belonging. You pent your money in the sin world of Bngkok to getN pay for sex nd yet you free medicine. people like you go to hell!!

Witso, I had serviced a local /foreign company manufacturing Paracetamol.
Yes, you are right, the cost of each paracetamol is very,very cheap. Infact the packaging is more expensive then the contents. Well, another Projeck Kroni from the Bodohland.
Susan, take more high fibre foods like Oats . Easy on the coffee and keep on blogging to control you blood pressure. 🙂

I do not have money to travel. I live on daily medication too
I too have faced the same but beggars can’t be choosers.

Even a single occupant of a modest house does not use
less than RM20 on electricity. How does the budget translate
to the man on the street? Does less duties on certain goods
and foods translate to lower price??????

Ahmad Albab al Lembab, you missed the point of this posting. So, don’t just main tembak the messenger. Read the message and understand the contex first.
Alahai, memang membazir duit hantar you pi sekolah.
Watch out for lightning strike from hell.

Who is that cracko Ahmad Albab talking to?
He sounds like the Malaysia owes him something.
Poor chap! Never mind…support Anwar and do something right in your lifetime.
He sounds such a illogical..jealous one.

Hi Susan,
My usual 6 months of medicine was cut to 3 months. I had to visit IJN 3months later for the balance. It is true that government pharmacies are on short supply. You can guess why. Despite Dollah trying to appease the voters, he is unbable to improve the economy of the country.
The MSMs are trying to paint a bright and cheerful disposition for the poor and needy. Do they really benefit from the damage done by the foolish raising of the petrol price by 40%? I believe not. The prices of goods that went up drastically are not coming down and will not. Dollah can rant and rave against the wholesalers and retailers, but prices might go up and not down. The tax exemption for mee hoon and the likes too will not much relief. Overall Dollah could have saved the ‘rakyat’ and the government a lot, if it had subsidies petrol to earlier levels rather than dish out handouts which do not compensate for the disastrous inflation that beset us. I am afraid his budget 2008/9 is more to hoodwink than assist the needy. Ask the ones who are suffering, cutting down on meals etc to make ends meet. They will tell you. Not only the civil servants, but those who do not have well paying jobs, the pensioners who have no savings and those who have never recieved petrol subsidies in any form as they had always depended on the unrelyable public transport system.

Ahmad Albab s/o of ali baba, you from where indon or what, why you care where sloone lives dingbat, for your information there are a lot of malaysians who have retired from govt service and the private sector, who live in THAILAND, not for the sex, moron,but for the peace of mind, to get away from relegeous morons and hypocrates, inclusive of muslims. Another factor is the cost of living in thailand with malaysian govt pension is livable as compared to MALAYSIA WHERE UMNO CRONIES HAVE A STRANGLEHOLD ON EVERYTHING. fro toilet paper, hospital meds, tolls, food taxes, relegous paraphenelia (taxed) priests, and a lot of stuff, but the main reason to rRETIRE IN PEACE AND NOT HEAR MORONS LIKE AHMAD WANTING TO BATHE HIS KERIS IN BLOOD , MORON!

my doctor usually prescribed 2 months medication for me cause it’s expensive, so cannot understand why the govt. hospital needs to prescribed 4 months at one go??????? guessed this is one of the reasons why they ran out of medications.

as for ciitizens staying overseas, i reserved my comments just am wondering if they pay their incomes tax locally ???????????

What the heck .. the ministers are jet-setting all over the world .. do they not see the standard of health care in other developed countries? I am 60+ .. have no pension .. living on dwindling savings and have to pay quite a sum for a decent medical insurance policy! Health care is very important but what to expect from the sinfully rich goons that run our country .. can’t even revamp the public transport system!!! GGrrrrr .. makes me sooooooo angry!!! Can’t wait to see the back of them!!!

u cant complain regarding the efficacy of the drug even if u r suspecting tat there is sumtin wrong with this product,esc drug for certain project…they will tell u,dont make noise aa…or dato x or y or will will upset u know…coz the production plant belongs to his wife aa…duk diam2 a..buat u pune keje elok2….>>>bull shit

if you want to talk about corruptions in BN gomen…it’s everywhere. IPP reapings tnb, highway tolls, roads constructions, servicings cronies co’e.g medicine supply etc
do you know that private hospital charges are exhorbitant. i agree with susan for not going to private hospital unless you have sponsors or medical insurance.

a least susan can have a month supply. i’ve known someono who was given a prescription and told to purchase the drug at a farmacy. i’m shocked to hear that gomen hospital can do that.

and for susan, do you think that it’s a blessing in disguise. you should vist your doctor regularly, i suppose. you know what i mean…(heh sound mcm Thelma pulak)

I can’t even get my medication from local hospitals for the disease I am suffering from. Although not life threatening, it is very rare in Malaysia but in the long term would cause me to lose my ability to use my limbs. A new drug came out in Europe not long ago which can control this disease and give me a good chance at a normal life for the rest of my life. However, I was told by the local hospitals that they cannot bring it in for me as there are only a handful of sufferers registered in Malaysia. The drug costs me about RM 5,000 per month if I import it myself with Ministry of Health clearance. Even then I cannot be assured of getting my medication as it could be “mistakenly” seized by the morons in KDRM and PDRM. I cannot afford the RM 5,000 per month bill which may go up even more in future. I am forced to use older, less effective drugs which I also cannot get free at the local hospitals but have to buy from pharmacists. At least I can afford this for now but I don’t know what I will do when I retire. At this rate I might have to emigrate to Thailand just to get my medication cheaply. Medication in Malaysia is so expensive what with the minimum 60% profit margins they are being sold to ordinary folk. VVIPs get it free but that is another story.

He actually intended to create more crony based opportunity for bumi middlemen to katuk from even the sick and needy. Since when has he ever implemented/proposed anything out of pure altruism? Hardly anything in reflection.

Wih the Gini Index only a notch better than Papua New Guinea it (free and fair medical care)is damn well a social responsibilty of the government of the day!http://tinyurl.com/5nscbv

the thing about any government run hospitals is that every single expenditure comes under different purview.

I was a medical director of a hospital and managing the allocation is part of my job scope.

if a hospital is allocated say 5 million for a particular year, it doesn’t automatically means that you are free to use this 5 million on what you deem fit or critical. It’s being subdivided into different amounts of funds allocated for different sections.

for example 600 series ( or simply call X) can only be used to maintain the appearance of the hospital, meaning flags, putting up decorative ketupats come raya, etc etc. At NO POINT this allocation can be used to purchase medicine even if it’s at a critical level.

200 series (or Y) can only be used to purchase computers and anything related to IT. and similarly it cannot be used for any other things apart from computers.

and it goes on. If in any one fiscal year, the allocation for say “X” is not being fully utilised ie 500,000 allocated and only 100,000 is used, then the next year’s allocation will drop to ONLY 100k for this and it would affect the whole allocation of 5 million for the hospital to 4.6 million.

And so you’ll see come nearing to the tail end of the fiscal year, all the allocation will be ‘simply’ spent so that come the next budget, the SAME amount can be received.

Fergie and College Lecturer, very sad and disturbing to hear of your predicaments. These are real problems on the ground that this rotten System by bumno has always pretended like do not exist and are they’re naturally not being aired by the abetting MSM to paint a glowing (but fake) image of progress. The country’s governance is utterly hollow and vain, as can be seen from its preoccupation with image, not substance.

As long as a Gomen is allowed to rule by the well known STFU decree and the controlled media propaganda, no remedy is possible.

Aiyaaa….what you people all complaining….it is all the private doctors fault….they are hoarding all the medicine …..and claim they have better medicine….so GH patients throw away our medicine and get into trouble…..somemore after getting into trouble they come back to us……oklah our a&e got no doctors or may have a doctor who cannot make the difference between the arm and the foot…..but still we give you good care ma…..and our ambulance services are excellent….so what if you have to top up the petrol once a while……aiyaahhhh….you patients ….always complain, complain, complain maa……now if you dont mind i have to raid a private clinic….while tryng to cook up this medical report regarding an asshole….we doctors in govt very busy one wan you now….dont lah disturb disturb….you got headache take our panadol….if no stock……..you better see our neurosurgeon quickly…..i heard he is moving to singapore soon…..cheers dan selamat merdeka.

Mark C : “At NO POINT this allocation can be used to purchase medicine even if it’s at a critical level.”

Very true! Ain’t that plain rigid bureaucracy by a system that don’t trust its professionals? And it expects trust in return. When you disillusioned people, you also promote the gravitating towards borderline corruption. You know, if you’re a specialist, or departmental head you may promote one brand of (more expensive)drug over others because of some private/departmental benefits. Or buy a certain make of x-ray CAT equipment or MRI machine and get a free oversea trip(for yourself and a couple of working staffs) to the US, purportedly for training purpose.

Biasalah, under Badawi, this had been happening for the last few years. Come every September, most hospitals already run out of commonly stocked medicine and patients are even told to buy their drugs outside with dr’s prescription.

There is an increase in Budget every year, but not in tandem with increase in patient load. So in reality, there’s less money for every patient seen in govt hosp.

Yes, we do need a better MInister and a new DG to run the ministry! Things cannot go on like this any longer. The budget need to be more reflective of current updates, like new medicine for rare disease.

Welcome to the club Susan. Besides hypertension (which is not an ailment to be laughed at as some of dumwits whose comments are sickening to say the least) I have some other complications for which I have to get medications from Penang GH. Initially they used to supply me with a four month’s supply which was then cut down to two and then for certain medication I have to make a monthly trip. Sometimes when you go the kind people at the pharmacy will adise you to call ahead to see if a particular medication or its alternative is available. Otherwise one has to buy from elsewhere costing a bomb which as a pensioner one can ill-afford.
To my knowledge all these problems arose when the supplies were privatised to certain crony companies appointed by BN government who are incompetent and badly managed. If and when the impending privatisation of all health care takes place we can be sure of a complete breakdown of all the services.
I am not sure what you do in Bangkok but I am sure it is for a good reason and may the blessings of Almighty be with always.

mark C, normal lah for any budgeting control. nothing sanister about it. but on drugs and medicine, the allocation will be the bulk of your operating cost. if you were under budget the previous year, then it will be in the annual report and new allocation will be projected. simple as that.

but the issue here is how much allocation the goverment is willing to give for rakyat health care? we are not discussing about private hospital because they are a business entity. profit is the priority. our discussion is on how caring is the suppose to be caring goverment? how clean the gomen is? how healthy is the health practices? if you have people like Ismail Merican who play politics then can’t expect much.

“Yesterday, I went to the government hospital to get my usual supply of medicines for my high blood pressure, but was told that I could only get a month’s supply.” -Susan

Wow Susan, that was shocking! I got a low blood pressure I guess. 92/63?????? I am not concern about my health but was that low as told by a friend who has a blood-gauge-gadget?

The General Hospital in my State was running out of bed. A friend’s father who had a 2nd degree of cancerous cell was winnowed of his catalyst of Human Rights- Medication. He was asked to go to a private Hospital for urgent treatment or an appointment set for him 2 months from the date of his
consultation upon acknowledgedment/ verification of the result of C.T. scan affirming his grave cancerous state.

According to Morgan Stanley, Malaysia has lost about RM100billion to corruption since the 80s. The figure is snowballing of course. The one who supports the BN regime including voters should be held responsible for this.

firstly a balance diet, i.e rice or food with fruits and fibre. do some light exercise and gradually increase i.e walk first and jog. i knew susan use to jog. exercise will make your blood capilliaries grow and blood will circulate better. your heart cardiac muscle will be stronger.

Thank God, Susan, you found this out for yourself,and you are voicing out to us.For your information this has been going on in all govt hospitals for the last 4 years.the excuse from the phamarcy was there is short of supply.We have been swollowing this bluff all these years.this years budget looks so glossy,but if you really look there is nothing much for the rakyat.Millions for d Polis,all the hundreds of buses lying parked in the shed,in the guise of transport.Will those allocation really reach the grassroots.When Penang was requesting for money PM flat outright said sorry not enough of money and he completely sidetraked the whole issue.Now pula all the millions coming out.

To be honest and sorry for sounding indecent- the answer to high blood pressure can be negate with sex. Yes, baby, wild sex. Toil for a cowgirl position and start riding. Sex is the best exercise in the world that is if one is not laying down playing possum. Trust me it works. 😀

It’s a very common sight in government hospitals at this time of the year. Government allocations to hospitals are done twice a year mainly in the begining feb/mar and june/july. Towards the end estimate in oct/nov, gov usually “pumped” more money to the hospitals after pleas of out of budget call from many sections of hospitals. Staffs in the hospital called it “Christmas shopping”! This is the time wastage of public funds can be seen. All over departments, those who hold the power of purchasing will spent unnecessary in hope that next year the allocation will be higher than the previous ones. That’s when corruption occurred. I’m not sure wheather you know this, if the budget is not spend by the end of time frame, AG will retract this budget and the following year budget allocations will be shrink. It was a norm replied in the AGs “Duit dah bagi selepas minta, kalau tak habis maksuknya tahun depan kami tak bagi sebegitu banyak…”

Pharmaniaga, a CGL, holds about 70% of the contract of supplying everything from drugs (eg: cheaper version of paracetomal the one without aluminium foil packaing) to disposable items. The contract supply will be done in stages. However, most of the time, this company will force the hospitals to “swallow” most of the products in order to achieve sales even the previously supplied are extremely high. Unfortunately, purchasers/ pharmacists have to bow to their demand due to the “orders” from higher rims. As a result, budgets are not enough to purhase other necessary items for patients.

Mad Merchant, what you wrote must be true because when the Gomen Central Medical Store was producing their own Paracetamol tablets, the production cost was just a barely few sen for a thousand, say.

Aside, and taking a piece from history, when the first supermarket appeared in M’sia in Penang as the then Pulau Pinang Supermarket in circa ’65 atop the Chowraster Market in Penang Road, dealing with the beginning of the China Trade, you could buy a piece of made-in-China toilet soap for 10 – 15 sen! Then stepped in Pernas as the Middle man and the prices instantly increased by some 50% upwards almost overnight! And this sort of Vampirism has never ceased since but became the sacred preferred way in so called Bolehland Biz. Got principles, ah, Bolehland?!

Susan, on polling day, I was at KL Hospital due to a badly infected scald over half of my hand & in pain.
Inquired at the Emergency & waited my turn to see the doctor; then told to go Outpatient section; waited my turn, only to be told to go back to Emergency again as they did not have the necessary to do the dressing. There again, they couldn’t do the dressing as I should’ve come on the day the accident occured. Got some prescribed antibiotics & painkillers.

The health minister, Dato’ Chua Jui Meng, now discovers generic drugs. He says in view of higher pharmaceutical drug prices, as much as 30 per cent, people should go for generic drugs which he now says is equally reliable. But he does not say where they could be got. Ask a pharmacy, any pharmacy, in Kuala Lumpur or the major towns, and most would tell you they do not stock them. As your doctor to prescribe generic drugs, and he invariably would not have any in stock. But generic drugs are easily available in other countries without difficulty, and doctors often give you the option of a branded or generic drugs.

Not in Malaysia. The medical fraternity and the pharmaceutical drug companies discourage it. They are a powerful lobby in the dispensing of medicine. If the doctors do not stock them, you cannot get them. The doctors do not stock them because the drug companies give them incentives so lucrative that they ignore the patient’s needs. It is not unusual for drug companies to give the double the drugs ordered for the price of one, which adds to the doctor’s income.

But pharmaceutical drugs cost more than in the rest of the region because of the monopoly shared by a company controlled by the Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Mahathir Mohamed’s son, Mokhzhani Mahathir, and the finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin-controlled Renong. No drug company can tender unless a Mokhzani-controlled company is paid a commission, variously between three and per cent, a commission which should make him laugh all the way to the bank if it were not for his huge bank loans.

This ensures that drug costs remain high. The Renong-controlled PharmaNiaga also controls the privatised National Pharmaceutical Control Library, which must test all drugs brought into the control, and can decide which can and which cannot be sold on the local market. If the Prime Minister remains long enough at the helm, his son’s venture into the medical field would ensure he would provide all support services of hospitals in Malaysia. He already controls the Pantai Hospital group. However much the government talks of a fair deal for Malaysians, it is no more than a fair deal for the two groups.

The cost of branded drugs rise so frequently that, like the road tolls, they are beyond the reach of most Malaysians. Common everyday drugs like pain killers are far too expensive. Cardiprin, a specially-concocted aspirin to thin the blook, which I take, cost about RM9 for 28 here, but I get them from Australia through a friend and there is costs about A$7 for 100 tables. Aspirin, which is what Cardiprin is, is easily available in the United States for a few dollars for a bottle of 500. The cost of one branded multivitamin tablet cost the equivalent of 14 sen in India and RM1.50 here. Price gouging is common in most pharmacies, though they justify it by rising prices.

Life-saving drugs you need to keep you alive, like blood pressure tables, rise so fast so often that many cannot afford it. I cannot now afford, and could not for years, routine checks on my heart — I have had a heart bypass 13 years ago — for the costs have become prohibitive — and that in a government hospital. I am lucky my doctor, in my view one of the best general physicians in Kuala Lumpur, reduces the risk by stepping in as best he can. Medical care is beyond the reach of most Malaysians. The high cost of all medicine makes it a burden for any who is not a government servant or retiree or has group medical insurance.

When the system breaks down, as health and medical services have, the health minister tries to calm down the growing anger by suggesting alternatives he has no intention to bring about. He provides no explanation why drug prices must rise so sharply as now, why we pay far higher prices than citizens in neighbouring countries, why some drugs used widely is not allowed into the country. A friend orders his vitamins in bulk from the United States until he found he could get them cheaper in Singapore. This particular brand, one of the best known, is not allowed into Malaysia.

All sorts of political and marketing games are played to keep drugs in the hands of a few companies and groups to keep them costly. There was some form of competition when the two monopolists did not take over the hospital and medical care services. Not any more. There is a way out of it, but this suggestion would never be allowed to become a fact: insist that when generic drugs of branded drugs are available they must be stocked in every pharmacy or doctor’s clinic. The patient then has a choice to what he wants.

I am not impressed with allopathic claims that alternative and native cures are useless or dangerous. They are no more dangerous than the cures they prescribe. I move away from allopathic solutions where possible, indeed I look for other than allopathic cures for most of my ailments. As one who is, by common definition, an old man, these ailments become common companions. I have become allergic to several common allopathic cures for some of them, and resort to traditional methods of cure. If anything, I am the better for it. I am surprised at the number who do think so too. I am lucky in that my doctor has an open mind, and concedes that all that he can do is to help you find a cure. It does not interest him if that be allopathic or traditional.

But this is not an option for many. They depend on drugs that must be bought, especially if they are expensive and the doctors would not supply them — as often happens in government hospitals — and are then caught in this monopolistic strangle in high drug prices. If the government wants to address this — it does not — it must look seriously into taking steps to ensure reasonable medical costs. Dato’ Chua can call for more generic drugs to be used, but when his own ministry drags its own feet and the two monopolies have no desire, nothing would change. And so we must adjust ourselves as a man swallowed by a python has to until he is crushed to death.

Thanks Hutch, for taking the trouble of digging up the essential history by MGG Pillai. Now it has become an invaluable insight, a gem, into the real nature of things wrt the outrageous Crony Vampirism at work that is causing the inflated costs of medicine today.

I beg the Minister of Health to assist CML patient. They are in need of a medicine name (GLIVEX). This drug from Swiss proved to be very effective in healing Leukemia patient. Very expensive medicine, costing around RM8500 for 30 tablets for the dose of 400mg daily (available from Novartis). Now patient are begging assistance from Max Foundation USA through patient support group call Max Family. Kudos to Max Family, surviving without assistance from the government.

The immediate government financial support to Max Family is very much needed. Shame on us Malaysian to beg from USA, but what can Max Family do, the patient are desperate. Only some government servant and pensioner got it paid by the government. Hope this drug one day can be prescribed to CML patient like any other medicine.

Many Leukemia patients lives are at stake. I am one of the lucky guy who survive on this drug.

Sometimes you people are too much….give you free medicine, you want 3 and even 6 months supply. If everybody stock up no bloody wonder the hospital out of stock. If you want to live in Bangkok that is your bad luck why must the taxpayer make sure can give you 3 months stock?

Free medicine for non resident and most probably non tax paying also want to complain.

Remember, the 2 blind brothers who were in the picture in the NST article who were nabbed in B`fields by the cops for “selling” tissue paper – Lawrence and Charles De Silva?
Lawrence is a dialysis patient and certain medicines he gets from the hospital. Many a time he has been told no stock. How is a hospital run on “no stock” basis?
What is more probable is that the money for the hospitals is not readily available `cos as per the AG`s recent report the Govt is busy losing money on educational equipment for schools, or renovating Ulamak Badawi`s house and stuff like that.

Hutch and witsO, it was a known open secret for suppliers in this industry. There are more than that. before i expose further, let me give a picture for the benefit of those who do not deal with the government agencies.

Non bumi suppliers ie: MNCs and locals who deals with government have to through bumi companies. Every purchase order issued, there will be 5% charge of the total sales by the bumi company. Their job functions are mainly administrative work ie: suppliers submit d.o and inv and they will in return press a few buttons in computer and wait for the payments. If this bumi co refused to return the money to the suppliers, imagine what would happen the next round? Price of goods will definitely increase to recover the loss. You can argue that it should be competitive among the suppliers and hospital will choose the lowest. Fair enough. But, if one than two than tens of companies facing the same dilemma, suppliers have no choice but to increase the price of drugs. My bottom line is why can’t non bumi suppliers deal directly with the government to reduce operating cost in return for cheaper drugs?

That’s more than that… e-perolehan system was introduced last year by the government in ministry of finance for the purpose of better control of spending. Guess what? This company who came out with the system is owned non-other than mentioned by MG Pillai – son of x-premier. For every purchase order request by hospital through the e-perolehan system, a 0.8% processing fee of the total sales will be charged when the p.o issued. However, in ministry of finance website a maximum charge will be RM9600. This 0.8% normally will be bared by the bumi co. Besides, the processing fee, the bumi co has to pay rm450 for one day course (a know how to operate the system) and rm60 a year to maintain the account with e-perolehan system. Mine you, government spending on health a year is estimated around RM1b. It means millions is going to the pocket of the one who walks at the power of corridor.

Mad Merchant : “My bottom line is why can’t non bumi suppliers deal directly with the government to reduce operating cost in return for cheaper drugs?”

Ditto in other local order purchases as well. For over a decade now, if a small district hospital were to purchase a couple of PC to replace a couple of old ones, they must buy from bumi shops only, even if they cost some 50% more and provide markedly poorer support services.

The worse poignant ‘killing’ of course is in medicine, something if you can do unconscionably, you can do a lot of other hanky pankies so much that easier.

dear college lecturer..very sad to hear that.the same happened to my bro.
he is, a civil servant n suffreing brain cancer ,yet need to buy drug by himself.he needs to spend around 5k per month to sustain his own life.
very upset and sad since i’m oso a health pro n see everyday in hospitl, how much the gomen spend to subsidize all the drug addicts disesases (including hiv drug and drug to control their craving for opiod) –i’m not saying that we cant give treatmnet to those people,but the gomen should be fair..pls be more selective to give treamtn to the addicts..dont need to spend thoussands for those who give no contribution to the nation….(those who still injecting themselves and jobess,just ‘lepak2’)….pls appreciate the rakayt that r contributing to tis country…

monster ball—high blood pressure can be life threateing ..even the latest guidelines now need to start drugs as soon as posible..no more life stly modification,do more relaxing activities..(well,can we expect the relaxing actvts in this country from the current gov??).. heheh 🙂

Wah… so much angst ah! Damn right, mark c, mad merchant, witso, hutch and friends.
Was in Indon just and had seen almost all ASEAN countries, Susan’s right ‘cos the medications in some of these countries are substandard. The ‘ethical’ stuff costs an arm and a leg; and the generics are likely fit for vet use.
But what mad merchant says is absolutely true, the is ‘method to this madness’, and drug purchases are actually a low priority for most gomen hosp – besides the ‘leakages’, corruption and cronyism, the hospital pharmacists have their hands tied by the bureacrats i.e. the admin. The rubbish middleman e.g. pharmaniaga, dips its hands in every nook and crevice and then more.
Ethical drug companies like Pfizer, Abbot, Norvatis etc. are quite wary of supplying meds. because of not receiving outstanding payments promptly, because there is none for all the reasons cited.
There is a schedule of Meds. for prescription, and a houseman or jr. m.o. can’t touch say schedule C drugs – so they give substitutes which have more side-effects. But that’s the way it is…, the senior fellows actually keep some of the very expensive stuff for their corterie of VVIP’s; ass kissers that they are. Now do you know why so many ‘Latuks’ in med service?
The actual problem is that many of the Med. Supts. or MOi/c in charge in a local hosp. are parochial lil’ nappies, and they may not be clinically sound. Some of the better run ones are usually by ‘commitee’!
As for College lecturer, max and millions more, i know it’s difficult to get by, but please understand that ‘though we have the potential to to be 1st. class, the effing system is run by some 4th. class low-down pit latrine heads.
The situation is not better than say Philippines, but is no-where compared to S’pore.
Throughout the world including U.S & U.K. there a huge headache regarding healthcare, not only with regards to insurance, but the incompetence and delays of ther NHS. I do hope that DSAI and PR keep this in mind when they take over.
Something has to be done asap, before the situation deterioates to the level of Myanmar.
Hahaha… machitam, i didn’t know you were a homeopath – kudos to you – air misai kucing pulak! Must share notes with you, i too allopathic-la.

Hi Susan,
I did not realise you are based in Bangkok.For your information there are lots of Msians working in Thailand who are very keen in the political happenings back home and they get first hand info only from blogs like yours etc.It would be a good idea to form an informal social group for interaction to exchange ideas and share concerns and see what we can contribute towards a better Msia .Forget the Msian Embassy and Msia Club which are more pro-BN mounth pieces so nothing tangible can come out of joining their activities other than social activities so political discussions.
Do provide your email or contact no in Thailand for us to round up like-minded Msians who are concerned about the direction Msia is heading under BN.
MK from Land of Smiles

YOu should follow my step…So no need to go to hospital.Try DIY reflexology.Exercise regularly.Minimum 3X/week.30 minutes/season.Eat lots of fruits and vegies.No smoking and liquor.Sleep early and get up early..

If you do all those I dont think you need all those medications..Anyway I cannot help wondering where had all the supplies had gone???

If you still need your medication and if you are still in Penang before going back to Bangkok , email me , I will wait for you at the GH Penang and get the medication for you . Just tell me the time and date and I’ll give you my contact ok !

Coming back to the not enough supply issue , Its basically true since there was a sharp increase in the number of people seeking medication from the GH due to cutting down of costs . Even today you will be surprised to see people coming in big luxury cars seeking medical care from govt hospitals . There is a marked decrease in the number of people seeking medical attention or care from private hospitals and private practitioners .

Being a Leukimea patient myself surviving on drug costing RM13,000 monthly for the past 3 years is not an easy task. I got to slock up and down to my Ministry to get my drug piad for. Prior to that, I was begging from International assistnce but failed. My advice to you is that to get the letter from the government medical consultant and forward it to JPA and seek their assistance. I think they have some fund to purchase medicine that is not available at the government hospital. Being a college lecturer, I do hope that you are a govenment servant. So, don’t loss hope, the window will be opened for you.

Susan, this supply contraint for common medicine started some years ago. In previous years (about a decade already) even the supply of even the commonest and cheapest of stuffs like Vitamin C and Paracetamol . Exotic and expensive medicines are being purchased for VIP needs however.

And witsO this might not be the actual picture you are painting ok !
1) regarding the commonest and cheapest of stuffs like Vitamin C and Paracetamol . It was the usual to give these in huge amounts to cover for maybe six months . However this policy was changed after it was found out that these medication was wasted . They have a shell life and people don’t consume paracetamol every day , you only take it as when needed . What happens after six months you find you have a huge surplus with you , you still go to the hospital for your next supply , ie every six months or three months . You take it back , what you do to the surplus you have ? or if it has expired ? simple THROW AWAY ! Thats why they now dispense smaller quantities and shorter time . The number of people going to the GH in Pg has increased two to three fold !
2)Exotic and expensive medicines are being purchased for VIP needs .- Not true
They have a budget every year for expensive medication . Usually for heart by pass patients or those in cardiology . The requirements per person might be about 1000ringgit per person . With that budget there are only a certain number of patients who will be able to enjoy that benefit . This budget is normally submitted every year in Nov.to the Health ministry . If for example somebody does a by pass in the year , they cannot supply you for that period unless you request for it with a proper application and also prove you cannot afford to pay for it . That will be factored into next years budget . Pls also bear in mind there are lots of cases where those rich people get their by pass done at private hospitals at the cost of 25000 to 35000RM and try to get the med from govt hospitals as they cost 1000 per month for their medication . For govt servants they can pay first those expensive med and claim back thru their dept. It costs only RM500 to get a by pass done at govt hospitals . It would be more at IJN as they are semi-govt.

BTW, Chap, Knowing Susan well enough, I don’t think she’ll accept your volunteered act of kindness. She’s not a fighter for personal gains and very likely not jump at the personal opportunity you seem to offer – on account of personal contacts at the GH Penang.

Well witsO I have not worked in a Gomen hospital but I have been with the Penang Hospital fot a period of not less then ten years as an appointed member of the Hospital’s board of visitors whose main function is to liaise between the hospital and the public . This covers all public complaints and special cases for refer to specialist treatment.
Ya as I said you have to apply for it ,and more is always subsequently approved as needed for such.

BTW, Chap, Knowing Susan well enough, I don’t think she’ll accept your volunteered act of kindness. She’s not a fighter for personal gains and very likely not jump at the personal opportunity you seem to offer – on account of personal contacts at the GH Penang.
I can understand your mentality of people offering to help . Even if I refuse their help . at least I’ll say THANKS but not a word of that from you !

OK, so can get the medicine but have to go through you to get it. Good. Keep it up. In another world it would be abuse of power oso.
And here you are marketing. Makes me sick to hear this. Organise the Fuc*in hospital betterlah if you really are serious in your altruism.
Dont boast here about your PR capabilities.

It’s not me who should be thanking you Chap. I don’t think Susan lives by queue cutting. She and we like to see a fair and egalitarian society, not a privileged one with special connections at every turn. Obviously you revel(without reflection) in such a one.

Kittykat46: “50 years of BUMNO has turned the entire government machinery into that.”

Precisely, the dead beat ELITISM and its favored people within that invariably ruins the entire society, to say the least. That hard core bane loves by the selfishly advantaged at the expense of everyone else.

Well if chaps have got the ‘connections’ he’ll certainly be able to get x yrs. supply of meds. for Susan. But that is not the point here, you’re reeking of the stuff that some of us here absolutely abhor! Nepotism, cronyism, favoritism and endless other -isms (none good) plus corrupted materialism.
It is obvious that there is no such thing as a vip/vvip account if one takes the Hippocrates Oath seriously. “All men are created equal” – not some men were created more than equal! Material wealth is not an issue at all, its fairness, justice and righteousness.
There is a special fund for expensive ‘ethical’ meds. and it is definitely not only for cardiac cases but a new generation of hormones, immunotherapy, oncology (which for chaps sake does include gold and platinum cpds) etc drugs, which is terribly expensive – esp. what ‘max and college lecturer’ (ezmabs, interferons, right?) are talking about.
But this fund is not used according to its function – that is to provide for the the most urgent and acute cases, as when clinically required. The lil’nappies are using it to ‘curry’ favor – this is not medicine, this is ampuism. Meanwhile, they are more cocerned about the landscaping, and ‘canggih’ hardware like MRIs, PETs equipment that can’t function without the ‘software’ like radioactive tracers, skilled/trained personnel! Imagine the corruption, leakage and incompetence of the health authorities when snafus like the one described by the Auditor General yesterday surfaces!
What about the AIDS/Cancer/Neuro and chronically incapacitated patients – surely 300 mil. RM will do wonders for them!
Most people don’t need ‘expensive’ meds, but the if the average Joe/Jane can’t even get a decent 3 months of pretty common antihypertensives, what can we say about the privileged flunkies/latuks/dan-sris who use the gomen hosp and clinics as their very own pharmacy?
Btw, chaps, i wouldn’t want to call my g.p. friends, not equal to ‘specialists’, because some of them were really the top in med school, have you heard of MBBS/MD (hons)? They are actually smarter – but couldn’t stand the pettiness and ‘sucking-up’ that went to obtaining their ‘specialities’. That is another story. We are talking of UM in pre80’s and yes you can very poor quality ‘specialists’ nowadays.

Menyalak-er, it is clear that if you’re in the a managerial position in a Gomen hospital as a specialist, or otherwise, the opportunity really opens up to you for ampuism since you would then have more time to ampu the very top VVIPs and VIPs as compared with others working on the floor. You’re perfectly right to say that best skilled people goes private and I’ll add that mainly the worst conformistic types aspire to managerial positions to earn all those dubious titles and latukships. Menyalak-er, I’m sure you might have heard of the famous case of Ipoh GH snipping off of a bit of the penis in one sunat accident a couple of decade ago. Well, the MS was well connected and a Datuk, so the blame went solely down to the paramedic and the senior attendant in charge of circumcision. She got promoted instead! There have been much more historical nonsense and scandalous happenings which any member of the board of visitors would have no blardy ideas of.

on a serious note, if the gov is serious about combating wastages , lower the cost of operations from RM146 billion per year by target of 5 or 10 %. do open tender and that estimate to save 20% more. instead, we get rebates here and there and how la to count all those things?

Absolutely, wits0.
The ampuists are the main reason why we leave in droves. There are really good colleagues of mine, who choose to remain within the system, because some feel that there is absolutely no competency left otherwise. They hold the fort while the ‘managerial’ takes all the glory usually castigating them for their perceived irresponsiblities in letting their juniors train.
Another case to point is the Klang h.o. who set up the drip (arterial, omg!) on the arm of an infant instead of scalp, which caused the gangrene and subsequent amputation. Who is to blame? Poor training coupled with negligible supervision.The attending paeds/physician in charge could have defused the situation but instead everybody cursed the unwitting h.o. Only after there is a hue and cry, the M.S. declares it a ‘mistake’! It’s a matter of ‘owning up’ and taking responsibility – instead we have all this ‘padam muka you’ syndrome, just klike their poltical masters!
Many of the managerial types you so mention and as you well know are the ‘specialists’ in public health; i.e. they have little experience in clinical med.
The so-called ‘board’ (aka: gormless ones) is a useless appendage, toothless and often ignorant. It is just a ‘reward’ thingy that the gomen has for lackeyism.
There is so much wrong in the system, dear friend and we have to change – put in a true socially concientious health minister, and kick out all that detritus that has accumulated since the 70’s.
We don’t need any politicians running our health and education schemes, or if they are – must be professionally competent, because a good measure of any society is reflected in health and education parameters; not only GDP/GNP ppp.

Menyalak-er: “..we have to change – put in a true socially concientious health minister, and kick out all that detritus that has accumulated since the 70’s.
We don’t need any politicians running our health ….”

Definitely! It has been bumno politics all along that underminded the Gomen services. In fact , Health and Medicine was earlier the least affected(infected) as compared with other branches. But decay and decadence must also happen there with such a bodek based political pall.

In the mid seventies, the nonsense surges of directives appeared from the PSD, created by newly minted first wave of NEP/bumno pen pushers. In the nineties there was a ridiculous directive from the entrenched pen pushers to demand hospital staffs to enumerate their daily activities by the hour! WTF, these PSD morons think? Everyone in the service pushes a pen from behind a desk?!! Already as it is/was, ward staffs were already known to be overloaded with paper work and little real nursing was being done. Ditto elsewhere where work is not paper work but technical and blue-collared.

Indeed gormless board are really shocking in their ignorance and unwittingly try to cause an epidemic of that as well.

Coming back to the basic points which are aphorisms and true: 1. good doctors are disillusioned with the state of Medicine and mediocre conformistic ampuists stay.
2. Making a big hoo haas in saving pennies over common and cheapest of medicine(claiming they have been thrown away!), including antihypertensives is a suspicious red herring tale, perhaps used as a diversionary canard to deflect attention from wastages/mismanagement elsewhere in the name of medicine(but actually politics). In fact i’ve know hospitals where the dispenser can’t even give its own uniformed hospital staff more than a couple of paracetamol at the counter without a doctor’s prescription!!

So Chap wanted to challenged things mentioned above which he thought he knew without his feet being on the ground? Whatta laft! There are tons of fall outs from bad governance which only fool hardy gormless and uninformed dissimulators attempt to deny.

I think generally Malaysians have a bad habit of wanting everything free and want plenty of it!!

You go to some malaysian homes and look inside the fridge and medicine cabinet and it looks like Aladdin’s treasure cave. Medicine everywhere. When asked why so many medicine, the answer is usually – “free mah”.

This is especially true for those with free Company medical or those who get it free from the general hospital.

What I have observe is true or not ?? Is this practise widespread or is it limited only to my circle of friends?

For all the bad things that BN & UMNO has done, the hospital system in Malaysia is not that bad. If you are prepared to wait and get the run around, eventually you will get treatment for very little cost.

In other countries there is no such thing as free medicine for high blood pressure & diabetes. Those are prescription drugs and you have to pay a subsidied price for it and they will only give you 1 month’s supply at a time.

The GP will usually give you “repeats” i.e. multiply prescriptions and you get the second lot after you finish the first lot.

I started to visit your blog again after the MT was blocked by the gomen! I’m sorry to hear that you are currently having hypertension/high blood pressure. I’m sure that this could be due to stress, etc.

Anyway, try to eat (in small quantity) young papaya leaves/shoots. Boil it first – as salad and eat it with sambal belachan (better mix it with lime (limau kasturi) juice). It’s good to reduce high blood pressure – as I always did (I’m an avid medicinal plants enthusiast). I read in the Borneo Post last month that the juice extracted from papaya leave can also be used to reduce dengue viral infection. Well, the taste is bitter, but then, bitter is better, what…

Mangan
Eat the papaya fruit can or not? Where to get young papaya leaves or shoot? Even if I can find some, have to eat everyday or otherwise how often? Have you tried this before and did it work?
I got slightly elevated hypertension that is why I an interested.

I think generally Malaysians have a bad habit of wanting everything free , not only that generally wasteful . I have seen with my own eyes people carrying big packets of medicines everytime they leave the hospital . Some of them requires something like six or seven different types of medication and each type to last for three or six months , so you can imagine the amount of med they carry home each visit .
This practised as you observed is very widespread and you are not wrong in what you see . In fact there were numerous occasions where it was reported that they found heaps of GH meds in the garbage .
To me I wouldn’t want to politicise the hospital or health ministry ,but there are people who will critisise everything and link them them to BUMNO or whatever , but nobody’s perfect and no system is perfect and no policy is perfect either . What they write I take note but no more comment on these swollen headed people who thinks what they write are gospels while what others write are inferior . Imagine a kind gesture of help , and you get all things thrown in at you . Let them have their say .Like I said they have nothing good to say about anything on Malaysia. Even the healthcare system in the most advance country in the world the US also have their problems and its being heavily debated by the Dem and Republicans let alone Malaysia . Its only the middle class and poor who are thankful of our hospitals and healthcare system .

We go back to our thing , Ya the hospital system in Malaysia is not that bad. If you are prepared to wait and get the run around, eventually you will get treatment for very little cost , as little as one ringgit for normal consultations and five ringgit for specialist consultations .this is not my feedback but from the public . In other countries like Indonesia for example their doctors only writes you the drug prescriptions and you have to buy the drugs yourself . in other words no free medication . Thats why we get lots of Indonesians frequenting our private hospitals in Penang for their medical needs and we are on to medical tourism . As for other countries I am not quite familiar .

Mangan
Eat the papaya fruit can or not? Where to get young papaya leaves or shoot? Even if I can find some, have to eat everyday or otherwise how often? Have you tried this before and did it work?
I got slightly elevated hypertension that is why I an interested. – ah long
————————————————————
Dear ah long and all,

I think we can control hypertension by going natural as mentioned by Mangan. Myself is suffering from high-blood for more than 7 yrs now and is taking the flwg drugs everyday:-
* Atenolol – (to lower pulse/heart-beat)
* Enalapril – (to lower blood pressure)
* Aspirin/Cardiprin – (prevent bloodclotting….I declined doctor adisved to go for Wafarin – blood thinner bcos of a side effec….internal bleeding.

What happened was about 3 weeks ago I started taking fruit/vege juice on advice from a friend (I had actually wanted to try the natural way long ago). I tried and somehow it worked but landed in hospital after taking the juice daily for abt 2 weeks! Reason :- pulse and pressure went down too low and I blackout….hospitalised for 3 days. My mistake:- did not have a meter to mornitor blood pressure and pulse. Well, I’m okay now (having doc’s appt in abt a weeks time) and here’s the recipe:-

Blend the above extract the juice…add 2 -3 spoon of pure honey. You have sweet, sour and bitter taste. Pour juice into jar and refigerate. I took about 1/3 to 1/2 a cup daily (every evening) and finished the juice in 1 week. Beisdes, I go to the gym 3 to 4 times a week. I think best is also to have sufficient rest/sleep.

I think there are other recipes that will work – one as mentioned abv by Mangan. However, a note of caution – PLS ENSURE YOU HAVE A METER TO MONITOR!!! I was very lucky – the injury sustained from the blackout was not serious. Anyway, this time I’m going to try on the juice again AFTER GETTING THE METER!!!. And taking juice is actually better than drugs…! Remember to exercise….outdoor or in the gym. Cheers!

Ah long/Chap : “If you are prepared to wait and get the run around, eventually you will get treatment for very little cost.”

Some maladies can’t wait, this is self evident. If you find homes with fridgeful of free medication, that is really no real material blessing. There’s little point in focussing mainly on the trivialities of saving pennies when grievous malpractices loom so large elsewhere

Such as,
The big picture is that of corruption and incompetence(and what became of ‘investigation.action’, if any at all?), e.g. like :

1. a piece of car jack that costs RM50 was bought for RM5,700

2. one set of set screw driver costing RM32 became RM 224

3. two units of crane towers that cost RM2.98 million, billed for RM5.72 million

Did you know Casio makes a wristwatch that can measure your blood pressure & heartbeat?? Next time you walk past the shops go and ask them. I had one but it is now broken. I tried to replace the battery myself and something fell out and it died.

I have heard of the bitter melon remedy and also the star fruit remedy. In China I had some beautiful bitter melon soup. They blend the bitter gourd and mix it with chicken stock to make a green soup. Taste nice. They even had a bitter gourd agar2. Also very nice.

Wafarin is vey powerful, it rots your kidneys and causes ulcers, I also take 1 cardicasprin each day. The wax coating ensures that it dissolves in the small intestines and it is very low dosage.

In most overseas countries and ASEAN countries these sort of medication you have to buy. The Government subsidies the price but you have to pay a fair portion of the price.

Here-in lies another topic for discussion, is it ethical for lesser developed countries like Africa and India to pirate drugs. AIDS for example is killing millions and those countries cannot afford to buy the medicine from traditional sources. Is it ok for them to “pirate” those medicine like CDs & DVDs.

I would like to share this interesting discovery from a classmate’s son who has just recovered from dengue fever. Apparently, his son was in the critical stage at the ICU when his blood platelet counts drops to 15 after 15 liters of blood transfusion.

His father was so worried that he seeks another friend’s recommendation and his son was saved. He confessed to me that he give his son raw juice of the papaya leaves. From a pallet count of 45 after 20 liters of blood transfusion, and after drinking the raw papaya leaf
juice, his pallet count jumps instantly to 135. Even the doctors and nurses were surprised. After the second day he was discharged. So he asks me to pass this good news around.

Accordingly it is raw papaya leaves, 2pcs just cleaned and pound and squeeze with filter cloth. You will only get one tablespoon per leaf. So two tablespoon per serving once a day. Do not boil or cook or rinse with hot water, it will loose its strength. Only the leafy part and no stem or sap.
It is very bitter and you have to swallow it like Won Low.. Kat. But it works.

*Papaya Juice – Cure for Dengue*

You may have heard this elsewhere but if not I am glad to.. inform you that papaya juice is a natural cure for dengue.. fever. As dengue fever is rampant now, I think it’s good to share this with all..

A friend of mine had dengue last year. It was a very serious situation for her as her platelet count had dropped to 28,000 after 3 days in hospital and water has started to fill up her lung. She had difficulty in breathing. She was only 32-year old.. Doctor says there’s no cure for dengue. We just have to wait for her body immune system to build up resistance against dengue and fight its own battle. She already had 2 blood transfusion and all of us were praying very hard as her platelet continued to drop since the first day she was admitted.

Fortunately her mother-in-law heard that papaya juice would help to reduce the fever and got some papaya leaves, pounded them and squeeze the juice out for her. The next day, her platelet count started to increase, her fever subside. We continued to feed her with papaya juice and she recovered after 3 days!!! Amazing but it’s true. It’s believed one’s body would be overheated when one is down with dengue and that also caused the patient to have fever papaya juice has cooling effect. Thus, it helps to reduce the level of heat in one’s body, thus the fever
will go away. I found that it’s also good when one is having sore throat or suffering from heat.

Please spread the news about this as lately there are many dengue cases. It’s great if such natural cure could help to ease the sufferings of dengue patients. Furthermore it’s so easily available.
Blend them and squeeze the juice! It’s simple and miraculously effective!!

Err, i basically don’t see the point of these arguments, because those who are really in need are not getting it, and those who are blissfully unaware or don’t need it are claiming that the healthcare system is working!
I would not care to validate what homeopathic vs allopathic syatems can or cannot do.
The point as wits0 and i are trying to point out, is that there is a health delivery problem that needs to be redressed. And i don’t want to be drawn into speculation of individual cases, since there are many know it all pontifications.
There is a good reason why some medications are given on a bimonthly, quarterly or semiannual basis; these ‘mild’ to ‘morderate’ conditions like hypertension and diabetes which are stable only need to be reviewed periodically.
There is just not enough staff to do this otherwise – how many clinic desa’s or district hospitals are there – most of them are understaffed, and we then have a whole bunch of bangla, myanmar nurses and drs working. Yet the gomen doesn’t recognize their degrees! Why?
Yes, if you compare with some countries in SEA, you have to by your own meds. by prescription. But if that is the case, then the all the poor become poorer or not treated at all! Are we comparing ourselves with Indon, Phi., Myanmar in terms of health care? Or have we beena lulled into the deception that we don’t need excellence and efficency? Just bare neccessities will do?
In that case, lets resort to starfruit juice and papaya leaves which are toxic: as evident in regards to that elderly Malaysian gentleman who conked off, after some starfruit in Guangzhou! Acute on chronic renal failure secondary to starfruitties – did the hospital there have the facilities to treat this?
You guys are talking about Panadols and Vit C, while we are talking about the whole system in general.
Let me enlighten you with this example: a gasto/colonoscopy takes 2-3 months for an appointment at a govt. hosp, unless you know some flunky there. A patient with kidney stones (renal colic) suffers the worst kind of pain akin to childbirth, but he is investigated after 2 months, in which case he might have committed suicide, and hocked his family treasure to for private hosp.!
No, we are not talking only about common conditions, we are appalled at the supposedly ‘free’ health care system that is becoming more and more inefficent and becoming biased to the the ‘haves’ rather than the ‘have-nots’.
Leakages and corruption in health care – they are akin to murder.
In this way i agree with ah long and chaps, that there is abuse in the system – by the haves and not the have-nots.

Petai contains threenatural sugars -sucrose, fructose and glucose.
Combined with fiber,petai gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of energy.
Research has proved that just two servings of petai provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute workout. No wonder petai is the number one fruit with the world’s leading athletes. But energy isn’t the only way petai can help us keep fit. It can also help overcome or prevent a substantial number of illnesses and conditions, making it a must to add to our daily diet.
Depression: According to a recent survey undertaken by MIND among people suffering from depression, many felt much better after eating petai. This is
because petai contains tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to make you relax , improve your mood and generally make you feel happier.
PMS(premenstrual syndrome): Forget the pills – eat petai. The vitamin B6 it contains
regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood. Anaemia:
High in iron, petai can stimulate the production of haemoglobin in
the blood and so helps in cases of anaemia.
Blood Pressure: This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in salt, makingit perfect to beat blood pressure. So much so, the US Food and Drug
Administration has just allowed the petai industry to make official claims for the fruit’s ability to reduce the risk of blood pressure and stroke. Brain Power 200 students at a Twickenham (Middlesex) schoolwere helped through their exams this year by eating petai at breakfast,break, and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research hasshown that the potassium-packed fruit can assist learning by makingpupils more alert.
Constipation: High in fiber, including petai in thediet can help restore normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to laxatives.
Hangovers: One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a petai milkshake, sweetened with honey. The petai calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system.
Heartburn: Petai has a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from heartburn, try eating petai for soothing relief.
Morning Sickness : Snacking on petai between meals helps to keep
blood sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness.
Mosquito bites : Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of the petai skin. Many people find it amazingly
successful at reducing swelling and irritation.
Sex: Petai is high in vitamin E .

Mac & giggle, about ‘craps’:
That’s where they plant the petai! More potent-lah… including the farts!
But some homeopathic systems (e.g. ayurvedic and traditional malay/orang asli and acupuncture) do complement some of the ‘allopathic’ practices.
Take these on moderation; and yeah mac, i’ve heard of that misai kuching stuff.
Cheers.

Yes there is something to be said for ayurvedic etc material, but it is not a cure-all as it is made out to be. Otherwise it falls into the realm of Syed Hamid Albar`s father selling snakeoil medicines on kaki lima.

menyalak-er, giggle and friends,
actually i can swallow it if petai amd as of misai kucing as herba medicine, ancient ayurvedic. but chap goes on to petai is reknown to world leading athlete etc…er…i don’t despise traditonal cures or herbal medicine, we should not go overboard until a herb like petai can cure almost any diseases.

Nerves:
Petai is high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system.

Overweight:
Studies at the Institute of Psychology in Austria found pressure at
work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and crisps. Looking
at
5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more
likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The report concluded that, to avoid
panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels
by snacking on high carbohydrate foods every two hours to keep levels
steady.

Ulcers:
Petai is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because
of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw fruit that can be
eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases. It also neutralizes
over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the
stomach.

Temperature control :
Many other cultures see petai as a “cooling” fruit that can lower both
the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In hoiland,
for example, pregnant women eat petai to ensure their baby is born with
a
cool temperature.

Smoking:
Petai can also help people trying to give up smoking. The B6, B12 they
contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help
the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.

Stress:
Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat,
sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body’s water balance. When
we
are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium
levels. These can be rebalanced with the help of a high-potassium petai
snack.

Strokes:
According to research in “The New England Journal of Medicine, ”
eating petai as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by
strokes
by as much as 40%”

Warts:
Those keen on natural alternatives swear that if you want to kill off
a wart, take a piece of petai and place it on the wart. Carefully hold
the petai in place with a plaster or surgical tape! So, you see, petai
really is a natural remedy for many ills. When you compare it to an
apple,
it has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrates, three times the
phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other
vitamins and minerals. It is also rich in potassium and is one of the
best
value foods around. So maybe its time to change that well-known phrase
so
that we say, “A Petai a day keeps the doctor away”

Ah so, so much for eructance; btw – my favorite food is sambal petai – addict mah. So is good old Kuantan ikan masin, only problem was nowadays the might spray it with Sheltox, so we can’t see the maggots, hahaha – must have been taught by their bumno branch chief!
Yeah mac, that’s the way to go! More than good sense…
Truly Malaysian, unlike ‘cults of petai’!

Will have great similarities with the one by the Kanamits, “To Serve Man”.
Or maybe titled, “To Serve man with Honey”!

Great geniuses will do old second(third) hand experiments and then claim it as a breakthrough? Like making making a Space Tourist into Space Cosmonaut? The same brilliance which saw to it that a Dr Lim Teck Ghee cannot simply keep his job at ASLI because demons protested.

Our Ministry of Health hospital administrators are forced
to follow the many rent-seeking govt schemes and projects that
prevent them from running their hospitals efficiently e.g. they can’t
purchase more competitively-priced medicines from the open market.

Our Ministry of Health hospital administrators are forced
to follow the many rent-seeking govt schemes and projects that
prevent them from running their hospitals efficiently e.g. they can’t
purchase more competitively-priced medicines from the open market.

Thank you for the advice. I will follow up on it. Some friends have also told me that I should consider going to Cuba to get a second opinion on my medical condition and the treatment there is supposedly free! I am not in government service but working contractually in private sector. I could lose my job at any time as my illness incapacitates me from time to time. So far my boss has been understanding but a new boss may well use my illness as a reason to not renew my contract. My medical insurance policy was cancelled after I was diagnosed with my illness and I am not covered by my employer’s medical insurance.

Susan you are just one of hundred of thousands ppl suffering due to wrong doing of the BN regime. Medicine in short supply due to lack of fund. Fund is not there because it has been misappropriated or disappeared into corruption coffers.
Then with the little fund still left behind, it is barely sufficient to procure minimum stock of medicine in Gov hospitals.

Yet cost of medicine in Malaysia is one of highest in the world. PharmaNiaga, controlled by M’s son, Mokhzhani Mahathir, and Tun Daim’s Renong was created during Dr.M time. It has the Vampirism role over all medicine and drug imported. Sometimes one may wonder why Mokhzhani and Daim both already multi billionaires, and already having multitudes of monopolies on other things, still want to step into pharmaceutical medicine field, which are so essential for human subsistence.

In this month of Ramadan, I hope all the people above, and including those involve in the crony bumi mandatory middleman companies will reflect a bit. Please let go of your special privilege over such item call medicine.

A company, with no previous experience and not even a license to handle radioactive materials, was given the contract to supply PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scan machines to Malaysian government hospitals. These are highly sophisticated imaging machines and require special expertise in knowledge of radioactivity.
The contract was worth RM 33 Million.

I am only a base-level pharmacist in a small government hospital and these are some of the issues regarding stocking and supply that we face:

We’re unable to give a full supply of medicines (e.g. 3 months) at once because:

a) There isn’t enough money to ensure that at any one time, there will be enough medicines for every patient’s full supply.

b) For most hospitals, there isn’t enough storage space to keep that mega amount of medicines equivalent to every patient’s full supply. Also another budget issue as there is also no money allocated to increase storage space.

c) As someone mentioned above, the pharmaceutical supply to the govt is monopolized by one particular GLC resulting in us being unable to procure drugs at a cheaper rate from different companies. Additionally, woe betide if there is any disruption in that company’s manufacturing process…the whole of Malaysia automatically faces a shortage.

d) Overprescribing of medicines by doctors. Many patients nowadays are on an average of 6-10 drugs. The prescribing pattern has been described as ‘one symptom, one pill’.

e) Patient wastage. Many a time I’ve felt like strangling a patient who has ‘lost’ three whole months of medicines worth around RM2k because he/she left it in the car in the hot sun. So much for my goodwill.

f) For certain patients however, making them come back every month for their medicines results in them being more compliant to the medication therapy as we have the opportunity to ‘nag’ them every month when they come to collect the meds.

These are the current issues that are being faced by us pharmacists in the government. However, I have often taken on requests for full supply on a case-to-case basis, especially for those that are going overseas for a holiday or to perform the Haj. I hope that no one takes out their frustration regarding this issue on us poor pharmacists as we are only performing to the best of our abilities within the constraints of ‘policy’.

Hi Mark (13:02),
No one is going to take it out at the gomen pharmacists at all, because what you say is basically true about the system, which has degenerated from the late 70’s – when drs. would sit down with the nurses, pharmacists, radiographers and attendants to address issues. Yeah, we also used to ‘beg’ the chief pharmacist for special drugs then haha; but that is another story.
The compliance, over-prescription and wastage issues are true in many cases.
But then, there are some patients running around with say ‘ethical’ amlodipine (Norvasc/Pfizer) 10mg, generic enalapril 20mg, simvastatin 20mg (yes, from pharmaniaga), 6 months supply (wh. costs a ‘bomb’) from a DH from Trengganu, while another in say Seremban has had no supply for the past 6 months… Now how can we reconcile such divergent scenarios? Poor or no integration/management of limited resources? Goonism.
Unless there is open tender (i.e. stopping monopolies), proper budgeting and an independent/self regulation (by consensus) between all departments of gomen hospitals, these issues cannot be redressed.
Where is the will? The whole stinking system is run by mediocre, ignorant, opportunistic, corrupt, arse-kissing political du’gongs’?
Can we blame the Min. of Health, who can’t differentiate between an ultrasound and an MRI?

Wa . very lively discussion on this , still having postings and comments coming in . I feel this is a very good tropic as lives are saved . We reap good merits helping out people with problems .
Btw phua lai kit couldn’t see anything on your http://phuakl.tripod.com/healthpolicy.doc

Talking about open tender for medication/ equipment/ disposables items are all full of bull’s in government hospitals so does in Pharmaniaga. In fact, in a whole damn country. It’s about who you know. Those commitees in charge can always be found and lobbied to gain upperhand. Even MNCs like pfizers are also do direct trade negotiations with the ministry of health for certain items to be contracted. If they failed, the next channel will definetely be International Trade Ministry by citing reasons like for years of monetary/ human resource invested in the country. In return, they require certain amount to be channeled back to the company by means of sales to keep the operation function. It’s just like the case of Motorolla, Penang.

In refine setting like in purchase of items in hospitals, three different quotations from three different Bumi Agents are required. However, ladies and gentlement, all three different identities are own by the same person.

Hack, what’s open tender than? It’s a whole screw up system we have in this world!

Before I end and keep my writing halt for the rest of this entry, let me tell you how pharmaniaga obtains supplies of sorts. They do direct nego with their goons who obtain substandard products from India/China with skyrocket price. At the end, hospitals got their balls tight and have no choice but to buy frm pharmaniaga.

To Mark: a piece of advise, pls get the h*ll out of government settings after serving your compulsory years, unless if you want to indulge further to become part of the power/corrupt/ and “let sales rep angkat your balls” wheel then continue to achieve a KPF level in 10/15 years time…

Well said, mad merchant!
Its a megapoly, not a monopoly. ‘Open tenders’ for anything in this nation is actually a closed looped system. There are no ways around this blighted corrupt stranglehold. They even provide the hologram stickers, not to mention basic vaccines at marked up prices. We’ll see if this changes with a new gomen.
Well, i think that people like Mark should stay on because he’s honest until the whole system gets revamped, if it ever does – give yourself 3-5yrs. Of course you’d steel yourself deprivation of unjust postings in the boondocks during this period – so take that time for your postgrad, then come out swinging. Learn the ‘ropes’ but don’t get corrupted by it. We will need you one day. The decision is yours. Cheers.

Menyalak-er: I really did think of staying on when I was still idealistic about the whole issue. Unfortunately, current events have led me to believe that the same old crap will till go on ill eternity, PKR-led government or not. As for passing time in shitty postings (which i’m doing right now) by studying for postgrad, I’d like to say that the chance of me doing my postgrad within the government is so slim that it’s nearly 2D.

I even once enquired about the possibility of me taking time off to do my postgrad which I would willingly fund 100% by myself and going on unpaid leave. In fact, I would still serve the years of service that I spent doing postgrad. However, I was flatly told no and told to wait till the day I get an evaluation of 85% for 3 years running.

With me happily rocking the boat like now, I think it’s a fat chance.

Oh well.

The only pride I take in my work is that in my shitty posting here, I’m truly helping people who are truly in need….rather than some damned Datuk/Tan Sris who go to public hospitals for free medicines.

my brotherinlaw is an exgoverment servant and recently he has a massive heart attack in a private hospital. Can he request for a compensation from the Goverment as it was an emergency and it’s a matter of life and death